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I'm note sure I get the logic behind some of the anti-doping legislation. In my town the stuff Sharapova was caught using is being sold over the counter without a prescription at $5 a pack. People with cardiovascular issues take it. Why it was banned is beyond me. Law is law in any case, though.

I'm note sure I get the logic behind some of the anti-doping legislation.

I think the logic is that drugs should be used by sick people not by healthy athletes to enhance performance.

She was sick for ten years but I think a miracle is on the way. She'll get healthy pretty quick now. Or find out she suffers from another ailment that is treated with another drug with performance enhancement side-effects.

I'm note sure I get the logic behind some of the anti-doping legislation. In my town the stuff Sharapova was caught using is being sold
over the counter without a prescription at $5 a pack. People with cardiovascular issues take it. Why it was banned is beyond me. Law is law in any case, though.

Meldonium was added [to the Prohibited List] because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.’

She claims that her "family doctor" prescribed the medication to her but that is not possible since:

• It is manufactured in Latvia and only distributed in Baltic countries and Russia. It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration
for use in the United States and is not authorised in the rest of Europe.

Remember that Sharapova have been living in the USA since she was 7 years old.

Why did she take it if she didn't have any heart problems? The medicine doesn't not work against diabetes as she claimed.
The only explanation is that she/her staff knew that it was performance enhancing´.

Valid points, gentlemen. I'm not arguing with the fact that she violated regulations. What I'm saying is that the logic behind the regulations is quite fuzzy. Sport people are not supposed to take performance enhancing substances? Fine, but pretty much every type of drugs or even food either enhances or weakens performance. Coffee enhances certain types of bodily reactions etc. Therefore, there should be some kind of a reasonable cutoff line or a threshold for what is banned and what is not. I'm not sure in this case it is reasonable.

Rudy. Caffeine is not banned at the moment but have been banned before and is still on the monitoring list. When caffeine was banned,
it was allowed up to a certain threshold so that you could still have a normal consumption of coffee without going over the limit.
I don't remember but I think the threshold were somewhere around 20 cups of coffee/day.

Some substances, are banned in-competition only and, in some cases, only in certain sports.

ANABOLIC AGENTS
Various kinds of HORMONES and RELATED substances.
BETA-2 AGONISTS
DIURETICS AND MASKING AGENTS (substances that is used to cover the use of other banned substances)
Blood/chemical/physical and gene manipulation.
SUBSTANCES & METHODS
PROHIBITED IN-COMPETITIONSTIMULANTS
NARCOTICS
CANNABINOIDS
GLUCOCORTICOIDS

SUBSTANCES PROHIBITED
IN PARTICULAR SPORTS

ALCOHOL
BETA-BLOCKERS

I think you can agree that most of this is very very different then regular food.